Don't get your hopes up.
Or do...it doesn't matter.
I just don't see the same vision (Brookes, Sammarco, et al) being applied to Elite by its current handlers at FDEV. I expect something totally unexpected.
Frontier, please tell us if the Panther Clipper will ever leave spacedock
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Or do...it doesn't matter.
I just don't see the same vision (Brookes, Sammarco, et al) being applied to Elite by its current handlers at FDEV. I expect something totally unexpected.
They did actually dig out scorpion SRV, wich themselfs they said on one of thier stream, its was on "shelf" for many years (probly since launch of horizons), and something tells me that thier shelf, its full of things, wich could be added in game, but for one reason or another, they didnt.
It should be added long time ago, cargo rack only dedicated slots, just like military and luxury slots that are restricted for specific roles... But that was asked by a lot of forums users, well as all over in reddit, more times I can remember, ever since dedicated modules slots came out, wich did a loong time ago.
Cargo ships certainly would be happy to receive like extra one slot but only for cargo racks, making them more attactive option for cargo haulers instead of going for multiroles.
A lot of good points in this worth thinking about. I would counter that to make up for lack of speed etc.. would be if it had a size 9 FSD (let's skip 8) that would enable it to have a jump range of 150Lyrs fully laden, making it a long distance hauler, perfect for CG hauling or any other situation where a mass amount of materials are necessary, like for base building.
Also, some of the module space could be mitigated by making Size 9 Cargo Racks, which would allow for masses of cargo but would limit the amount and effectiveness of HRP/MRPs.
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With the Cutter's hull mass at 1,100 tons empty, it'd need a size 10 cargo (2,048 tons cargo space) rack to fit in a Panther Clipper.
I never could figure out why we dock inside the station.
Always seemed like it would be much easier to have the docking bays on the outside which then lowered into the station and closed the bay from above.
Must have been the same guy that designed the crazy new parking lots where everyone has drive by the store front to see how many customers they have to mow down to get there....
Always seemed like it would be much easier to have the docking bays on the outside which then lowered into the station and closed the bay from above.
Must have been the same guy that designed the crazy new parking lots where everyone has drive by the store front to see how many customers they have to mow down to get there....
Indeed - it will probably have that
On a rotating station, docking on the outside would effectively be negative G-force instead of positive, and would complicate the docking procedure quite a bit, computer assist would be necessary to a much higher degree than it is with internal docking in the station.
this argument kinda falls flat to me since i didnt really liked Sammarco's vision, not for his version of PP and even less for things like multicrew
on the other hand, the current crew will get us 4 ships this year, thargoid war was really nice, even tho they lost me at the anti-guardian field + farm materials to mod guardian weapons with anti-anti-guardian field - that was silly
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I think FC are already more than suited for such massive cargo hauling, they can carry easly 20k+ tons of any cargo, and having jump range of 500ly, all needed is load it, then order to jump and park next to destination. Of course during busy CG or hotspots, it can be a pain to have free FC slot in system, but once it manages to secure one, unloading single fully laden FC by its owner alone is enough be in top 10% during most CG's, while top 10 are usually ones who are capable doing that mutiple times per CG. The ones who are most efficent at this, probly they dont wanna anything worse to fly than they have already to work with.
And probly one of reasons why Fdevs dont see need for bigger cargo haulers than we have already (T9 and cutter wich both are already plenty big enough). I might also add, that FC also serves thier roles as "base" with that diffrence its mobile one (along your entire fleet + all owned modules as bonus).
Its one of main reasons why I am so sceptic about base buliding, since like mentioned, FC are already here, and they are actually "usefull" in many areas be it massive cargo storage or even as base of operations among other things. I just cannot image having static, planetary base with similar functions that of FC, but without it being able to move - I dont see point for that, gameplay wise apart of simple novelty of having planetary base by itself that surely would be also similar with Up-keep mechanics.
By "FC are here already" I mean, its simply that if there is something that already fulfill certain on-going needs of "crowd", then its highly unlikely to something else similar being added. History of this game develpment and how its features being added, its enough proof, and since being bit too hyped about something, sadly often ends being dissapointed a bit once "desired" feature came out.
Anyway, like someone else already mentioned, its like what, 9 or already 10 years since it was teased? Hence "ship that got under rug, and never came out since" indeed.
Its opposite for me... Times and era when Sammarco and Brookes was around, was most "fun" I guess? A lot was going on at time, and new features (albeit not perfect) came one after another, in much more regular pace and intensity than it does currently, and ships where regulary being added as well, and overall fdevs was more "open" and more vocal about game and its directions. Quite unlike now, where we have no idea whats coming next becasue of current crew of Fdev trying make some kind of "hype" by "secret, exiting new features" but its not really working as it should.
Aint he was already gone from elite for year or two before you ever begin Your journey with elite? I not trying be mean here, but since when you started, "Sammarco's vision" was already song of past, and powerplay form was more like M.Brookes vision, than Sammarco's Imho. But I agree on mutlicrew along CQC, that is both disasters than should never came out of "shelf". Needless to say, I think if You would be around time when these two nice guys had lead developlent of elite, your opinion surely would be diffrent, because you would be "overjoyed" with amount of new things every few months, wich since 2019, became much, much more rarer, where If I am not mistaken, you did started right?
He also was atleast one and only Fdev who ever tried to balance endgame PVP with enginering and adress ongoing issues with it, but sadly some of ideas at end never came out of beta, such as shield stack dimishing returns, wich would certainly shape meta very diffrently than it went, and far as I am aware, every PVPer including myself from that era, actually wanted that change to make into live. It was one of main reasons for famous "PVP vs PVE" debate, if not mistaken.. (not like you would care about that, it is worth to point out regardless)
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I started at the end of November 2018, a bit before 3.3 - and he was gone from ED by that time, indeed. But i did read quite a number of old forum posts of his and old streams.
And 2018 was the last year new ships were added - but i dont think his departure had any meaning into us not getting any new ships. (IMO it was FDev shifting focus from ED to JWE and later on to PZoo)
and again, to me multicrew was one of the biggest immersion killing game features that still miffs me off even today.
I am sure you would like that time and era. Hes departure followed was by "maintence mode" wich elite never fully recovered from it, and pace of things being added dimished a lot since, ships or features included.
Holo-me, uggh... indeed thing should never left "shelf" of ideas. And rubber-banding bug killed it even more, especially there other cmdrs at same instances... and even now, its still problem.
Not really arguing for whether I liked their vision. My opposing opinions are well within the depths of these forums.
I was saying its not the same vision, therefore they are more difficult to predict. If it were the old team I'd expect something more akin with the original line up and probably meant to fill a gap with one of the manufacturers. This group now, I don't know, they have kept me on my toes...good or bad.
My impression is that since the staff cuts it feels like twice as much is getting done and the pace and quality of the updates is markedly improved.
Bravo FD
I may not always agree with everything, but overall development pace, quality, and communication has improved significantly and I applaud the current team's productivity.
Bravo FD
I may not always agree with everything, but overall development pace, quality, and communication has improved significantly and I applaud the current team's productivity.
This may in large part have to do with the amount of rewrite that was done into Odyssey.
If I recall correctly, ED was pretty much spaghetti code from early on. Changes became more difficult, time-consuming and caused a lot of unexpected issues.
On a cleaner platform (with the bugs ironed out and console cut out for simplicity) a smaller team is able to deliver more. This is good, though I can't help but wish for old and dead ideas to have had a second chance.
Though the counter to Frontier being more open about where they thought the game was going is that they were often just plain wrong about that when it came to delivery (on both schedule and content), which if anything caused more complaints.
Horizons was delivered much later than their original plans and there's pretty strong evidence that at least Engineers and Thargoids were cut back quite a bit from their original hopes for the features; Beyond was only about 2/3 complete by the original schedule and Fleet Carriers took another 18 months. Odyssey was at least six months late (and arguably needed at least another 12 on top of that). The Powerplay rewrite appears to have been originally intended for early 2023 and so is getting on for 18 months late as well; the Thargoid war has been repeatedly "held up" to stop players getting too far ahead of the new features needed by the plot. The "mystery feature" supposed to be coming at the end of this year will surely slip into 2025 (or 2026, depending on how much post-release rebalancing Powerplay takes?) as well.
I think that they've certainly figured out that:
a) talking about their big ideas before they're sure that they can do them isn't productive
b) having someone identifiable front the ideas - rather than the obvious intermediary of the community managers - just means that they get the blame (and sure, five years later the credit too, but mainly the blame at the time)
If people are getting hyped up about "ooh, mystery features!" then I'm sure Frontier don't mind but I doubt it's their actual goal with this so much as avoiding committing to things they're still unsure about. (Like the Panther Clipper, I suppose...)
Both the Buluga & Orca (I don't remember the Dolphin) used to have dedicated module slots for passenger cabins only.
As is to be expected, much moaning from the forum persuaded FD to unlock all slots on those ships a few years ago.
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I don't think nested ships are coming soon. I think there would have to be a fundamental shift in how the game works under the hood to allow for it, in regards to being able to switch ships outside of a docking area, having multiple ships outside of the docking area, the persistence/tracking of leaving a ship on a planet, or some random place in space, dealing with the rebuy calculation if you get blown up in a Panther with another ship in its hangar.
None of it is insurmountable, but I would imagine that enabling the ability to switch the association of a ship to a character to that of any point in the galaxy, rather than defined places such as planetary ports/space stations is non-trivial.
However, I would hope at some point Frontier would put the work in to make it happen, as it seems much more of a logical progression now we are able to walk around on foot and move from ship to ship accordingly.
Which ironically buffed the Beluga as passenger ship, since the size 5 slots were locked to cabins and the shield had to go into a size 6. Now all size 6 can be cabins, and the shield can go into a size 5.